Lorenzo Langstroth

Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth (December 25, 1810 – October 6, 1895), apiarist, clergyman and teacher, is considered to be the father of American beekeeping. He created the modern day Langstroth hive.

Langstroth was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Yale University in 1831, and subsequently held a tutorship there in 1834-1835. After this he was pastor of various Congregational churches in Massachusetts, including the South Congregational Church in Andover, Massachusetts in May 1836. From 1843-48 he served as pastor of Second Congregational Church in Greenfield, Massachusetts A large granite marker was placed on the church's front lawn by national beekeeper E.F. Phillips and others in 1948. In 1848, Langstroth became principal of a young ladies' school in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

He married Anne Tucker (1812 – January 23, 1873) of Massachusetts. They had three children, all born in Massachusetts: James (1837), Anna (1841) and Harriet A. (1847).

The Leaf Hive, invented in Switzerland in 1789 by François Huber, was a fully movable frame hive, but had solid frames that were touching and made up the "box". The combs in this hive were examined like pages in a book. Langstroth acknowledged Huber's contribution: "The use of the Huber hive had satisfied me that, with proper precautions, the combs might be removed without enraging the bees, and that these insects were capable of being tamed to a surprising degree. Without knowledge of these facts, I should have regarded a hive permitting the removal of the combs as quite too dangerous for practical use." (Langstroth on the Honey-Bee, 1860)

Langstroth was popularly credited with discovering the "bee space," though this discovery had already been implemented in European hives. In Europe, both Jan Dzierżon and August von Berlepsch had been focused on side-opened hives. Land resources in Europe had been limited, and traditionally bees were kept in beehouses. The presently so-called “bee space” had been incorporated by Berlepsch following Dzierzon’s discoveries, from the years 1835–1848, into his frame arrangement (Bienen-Zeitung, May 1852). Langstroth made many other discoveries in beekeeping and contributed greatly to the industrialization of modern beekeeping.

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